Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Hey, Sunnyhillers, most of you know by now that I am an avid caver (one whoexplores natural, undeveloped caves). Many of you have expressed interestlevels ranging from genuine to morbid curiosity in my hobby. Some of youhave been so bold as to approach me and say you think you'd like to tagalong sometime. To this my response is, GREAT!

Mark your calendars for Saturday, March 5. I have reserved a group tripinto the wild, undeveloped area of Laurel Caverns. I need 6 to get thegroup rate of $18/person, group max size is 16 (I think, gotta doublecheck). The time slot I have is 2pm-5pm, I would suggest we meet atSunnyhill at 11:30am. Laurel Caverns is located east of Uniontown, PA onUS40, atop Chestnut Ridge (and the view on a clear day is stupendous!) Thecave trip is into the undeveloped part of the cave: No lights, no walkways,no hand rails, no tourist trails, the cave is pretty much in its naturalstate (for as much visitation it gets). You will need grungy clothes, and achange of clean clothes.

This is a great trip for folks who think they may be interested in caving,but want something relatively easy to start (I was 8 years old when Istarted doing this cave trip with my dad, due to insurance issues these daysthe minimum age is 12). Because this is a trip into undeveloped cave, thereis no access for those with physical disabilities (sorry). You will beclimbing over underground rocks, walking through a shallow stream, and doinga minimal amount of crawling and squeezing (for a wild cave trip, this onereally is pretty easy).

How did this trip come to be? I had originally reserved this trip for myhigh school youth group, but interest in anything this year on their parthas been dismal at best, so I decided rather than scrapping it to offer itto you Sunnyhillers. Most of the caves I do are the "hike through the woodsto the hole in the ground and go in" type, completely wild, no fees, guides,etc. but this is a real good into to the sport.

If you are interested, here is a website with more information:http://www.matheia.com/caving.htm . Please read over the information onthis website so you know how to prepare and what to expect (I can print itfor you if you need me to, let me know). You will need to sign a waiver togo in (insurance reasons, again...). There will be a signup sheet on thebulletin board at the bottom of the stairway where you can sign up. BecauseI need to keep track of the group size, I need folks to sign up.

Hope all of you who are interested can make this!

Carl Pierce

(PS - Hey Spiritways Pagans, get to know our Earth Mother in a new andintimate way!)